Friday, May 30, 2014

"The way to reclaim America is through patient diligence," University of Oklahoma professor David Deming writes in The Washington Times.

First, have children. Demography is destiny. Second, don’t abandon your children to the public schools. Take the responsibility for educating them. Third, teach children why the United States is both unique and exceptional. With his new series of children’s books, Rush Limbaugh is showing the way.

Now I had every intention of voting Republican in November, but if this guy really wants to get rid of compulsory attendance laws, slash my income and property taxes, and basically privatize the whole enchilada, I might have to give him a serious look.

"After voting in 2011 to prevent social promotion of third-grade students who read at only a first-grade level (if that), state lawmakers did a 180 this year and acted to allow functionally illiterate students to advance to fourth grade," The Oklahomannotes today. But even though "the retention mandate is gone, schools still have a mandate to teach all children to read regardless of social or economic status. Policymakers must hold them accountable."

A few days ago the superintendent at Tulsa Union took to the pages of the Tulsa World to assure Oklahomans that "our public schools are doing great work," adding with emphasis: "Our education system is not broken!"

Whereupon it struck me that I need to create a new label—let's call it "Ed in the Sand"—and chronicle various statements of this sort when they come along. Here are some others from years past:

Superintendent of Public Instruction Janet Barresi made the following remarks yesterday following House passage of House Bill 2625:

Today’s vote endorses a system of social promotion that has failed to reduce illiteracy and has deprived students from receiving the best education possible. Nothing is more fundamental to learning than the ability to read. The Reading Sufficiency Act can greatly improve literacy in our state, but it cannot work if it is abandoned for social promotion.

Illiteracy in our children must be a call to action. Everything I’ve seen this school year proves that teachers all across our state have heard that call and are doing monumental things. They are persisting with struggling readers and giving children the one skill that will serve as a gateway to other personal achievements in their lives.

The RSA ensures the greatest resources and amount of time available to intensive, customized reading instruction. Only in the most extreme cases when good-cause exemptions don’t apply is retention part of the law. The point of the RSA is to focus education for struggling readers long before they reach third-grade.

Instead of providing an alternative to learning to read, which this pending bill does, we should instead spend our energies helping these students read. Instead of taking the easy way out, we need to make certain every effort is made by parents, teachers and our communities to help these children learn to read.

House Bill 2625 reinforces a status quo that has failed far too many children. It places exorbitant costs and time on school districts by mandating fourth- and fifth-grade reading remediation for students with Unsatisfactory and Limited Knowledge scores. Moreover, it requires districts to hire reading specialists to be on the committees, an expense that smaller districts will be unable to afford. It undermines a law that districts have had three years to comply with and involve parents in its implementation.

Even a well-intentioned bill can have grievous consequences, and I am concerned that is the case with HB 2625.

"A new study from researchers Eric Hanushek (Stanford University), Paul
E. Peterson (Harvard University), and Ludger Woessmann (University of
Munich) finds that U.S. schools do as badly at teaching those from
better-educated families as they do at teaching those from less
well-educated families," according to Education Next.

“If you have more students, you need more teachers,” Duncan superintendent Sherry Labyer sensibly told the Duncan Banner in February. If, for example, 250 new students show up to enroll in Duncan’s public schools, then obviously administrators will need to hire more teachers.

Of course, the corollary is obvious. Simply take Mrs. Labyer’s statement and substitute the word “fewer” for the word “more.” If, for example, 250 fewer students show up to enroll in Duncan’s public schools, then administrators would not need to hire as many teachers. In other words, those instructional costs aren’t fixed. They’re variable. Indeed, economist Benjamin Scafidi estimated in 2012 that only one-third of Oklahoma’s education costs are fixed costs, whereas two-thirds are variable costs (costs that change with student enrollment).

In a recent argument against parental-choice legislation, Steven Crawford, executive director of Cooperative Council for Oklahoma School Administration, told the Tulsa World that “costs don't go down just because a kid leaves. You don’t get rid of a teacher every time a kid leaves, or you don’t close a building.”

True enough, certain costs are fixed. No reasonable person would claim that a school administrator should “get rid of a teacher every time a kid leaves.” But if 25 kids leave, or 250 kids leave, that’s a different story. Some costs are variable. Unless, of course, Mr. Crawford is prepared to say that he doesn’t want increased funding if 250 new students show up.

Common Core combatants likely don't agree on much, the Washington Examinereditorializes, but they agree on this: America's public schools are failing.

This national disgrace cannot continue. Teachers unions are the biggest obstacles to genuine reform. Their monopoly must be broken so great teachers can be rewarded and bad ones fired. That means school choice must become available to all students, not just a lucky few.

The Examiner is a property of Philip Anschutz's Clarity Media Group, which also owns The Oklahoman.

Heck, for good measure, lawmakers even added that "parents have inalienable rights that are more comprehensive than those listed in this section. The Parents' Bill of Rights does not prescribe all rights of parents. Unless otherwise required by law, the rights of parents of minor children shall not be limited or denied."

"Groups lobbying for increased state appropriations for public schools
often argue students are being forced to use old textbooks because of
underfunding," The Oklahomannotes today.

What those groups don’t mention is that school
administrators previously lobbied the Legislature to change the law so
they would not have to use textbook money only for textbooks. When the national economic downturn began, schools asked for greater
flexibility in the use of those funds, which lawmakers provided. This
allowed schools to use textbook money for other classroom expenses like
salary support. If the Legislature were to change the law back, and
earmark those funds exclusively for textbooks, fewer students would be
using old textbooks. But that money would no longer be free for other
uses, and it’s likely schools officials would loudly object. The use of
old textbooks is not simply a product of state funding, but also of
locally controlled decisions.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

"Two women who claim they were bullied by teachers and students at Yukon High School during the 2010-11 school year will be paid $110,000 as part of a settlement reached with the fast-growing school district," The Oklahomanreports.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

"If American teachers are anywhere near as unimpressive as ambitious Millennials perceive them to be, then the state of public school education is quite depressing," Rebecca Klein reports over at HuffPo.

A study released Tuesday by the centrist think tank Third Way reveals that high-achieving undergraduate Millennials don’t think much of the teaching profession and would rather choose a different career. According to the study of 400 college students with GPAs of 3.3 or greater, only 35 percent described teachers as "smart," half said the profession had gotten less prestigious over the years, and most described teaching as the top profession for "average" people. ... According to the report, a majority of America’s future teachers now
come from the bottom two-thirds of their college classes..."

Klein tells us the Third Way report, co-authored by Lanae Erickson Hatalsky,

called for an expansion of accountability
measures that would reward effective teachers through salary increases
and career growth opportunities, while working to keep ineffective
teachers out of the classroom. "I just don’t think ambitious
millennials want to be in that type of system, where the amount of work
they put in and results they get have no bearing on the type of career
they have going forward," said Hatalsky. "I think that especially for
millennials it’s not just about money, its about being able to challenge
themselves and take on more responsibility."

Educational Choice in a Nutshell

The end goal of “public education” is an educated public. There are many different means to an end. Educational choice refers to any policy that allows parents to choose the safest and best schools for their children, whether those schools are government-operated or privately operated.

In a free society, the government rightly defers to parents when it comes to raising their children. And since education is simply a subset of parenting, the government should defer to parents when it comes to educating their children. Parents, not government officials, have the moral right to determine their child’s path.

Comments Policy

The views expressed in these posts are those of the bloggers and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any institution. The goal of this blog is to create an open discussion about education reform (most notably parental choice) in Oklahoma. All feedback is welcome as long as it includes the commenter's name and doesn't violate the common rules of netiquette.